by Watkin Tench
Were the nature of the subject worthy of farther illustration, many similar proofs of misapplied talents might be adduced.
Their love of the marvellous has been recorded in an early part of this work. The imposture of the gold finder, however prominent and glaring, nevertheless contributed to awaken attention and to create merriment. He enjoyed the reputation of a discoverer, until experiment detected the imposition. But others were less successful to acquire even momentary admiration. The execution of forgery seems to demand at least neatness of imitation and dexterity of address. On the arrival of the first fleet of ships from England, several convicts brought out recommendatory letters from different friends. Of these some were genuine, and many owed their birth to the ingenuity of the bearers. But these last were all such bungling performances as to produce only instant detection and succeeding contempt. One of them addressed to the governor, with the name of Baron Hotham affixed to it, began ‘Honored Sir!’
A leading distinction, which marked the convicts on their outset in the colony, was an use of what is called the flash, or kiddy language. In some of our early courts of justice an interpreter was frequently necessary to translate the deposition of the witness and the defence of the prisoner. This language has many dialects. The sly dexterity of the pickpocket, the brutal ferocity of the footpad, the more elevated career of the highwayman and the deadly purpose of the midnight ruffian is each strictly appropriate in the terms which distinguish and characterise it. I have ever been of opinion that an abolition of this unnatural jargon would open the path to reformation. And my observations on these people have constantly instructed me that indulgence in this infatuating cant is more deeply associated with depravity and continuance in vice than is generally supposed. I recollect hardly one instance of a return to honest pursuits, and habits of industry, where this miserable perversion of our noblest and peculiar faculty was not previously conquered.
Those persons to whom the inspection and management of our numerous and extensive prisons in England are committed will perform a service to society by attending to the foregoing observation. Let us always keep in view, that punishment, when not directed to promote reformation, is arbitrary and unauthorised.
19
Facts relating to the probability of establishing a whale fishery on the coast of New South Wales, with thoughts on the same
IN every former part of this publication I have studiously avoided mentioning a whale fishery, as the information relating to it will, I conceive, be more acceptably received in this form, by those to whom it is addressed, than if mingled with other matter.
Previous to entering on this detail, it must be observed that several of the last fleet of ships which had arrived from England with convicts, were fitted out with implements for whale fishing, and were intended to sail for the coast of Brazil to pursue the fishery, immediately on having landed the convicts.
On the 14th of October 1791, the Britannia, Captain Melville, one of these ships, arrived at Sydney. In her passage between Van Diemen’s Land and Port Jackson, the master reported that he had seen a large shoal of spermaceti whales. His words were, ‘I saw more whales at one time around my ship than in the whole of six years which I have fished on the coast of Brazil.’
This intelligence was no sooner communicated than all the whalers were eager to push to sea. Melville himself was among the most early; and on the 10th of November, returned to Port Jackson, more confident of success than before. He assured me that in the fourteen days which he had been out, he had seen more spermaceti whales than in all his former life. They amounted, he said, to many thousands, most of them of enormous magnitude; and had he not met with bad weather he could have killed as many as he pleased. Seven he did kill, but owing to the stormy agitated state of the water he could not get any of them aboard. In one however, which in a momentary interval of calm, was killed and secured by a ship in company, he shared. The oil and head matter of this fish, he extolled as of an extraordinary fine quality. He was of opinion the former would fetch ten pounds per ton more in London than that procured on the Brazil coast. He had not gone farther south than 37°; and described the latitude of 35° to be the place where the whales most abounded, just on the edge of soundings, which here extends about fifteen leagues from the shore; though perhaps on other parts of the coast the bank will be found to run hardly so far off.
On the following day (November 11th) the Mary Anne, Captain Munro, another of the whalers, returned into port, after having been out sixteen days. She had gone as far south as 41° but saw not a whale, and had met with tremendously bad weather, in which she had shipped a sea that had set her boiling coppers afloat and had nearly carried them overboard.
November 22nd. The William and Anne, Captain Buncker, returned after having been more than three weeks out, and putting into Broken Bay. This is the ship that had killed the fish in which Melville shared. Buncker had met with no farther success, owing, he said, entirely to gales of wind; for he had seen several immense shoals and was of opinion that he should have secured fifty tons of oil, had the weather been tolerably moderate. I asked him whether he thought the whales he had seen were fish of passage. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘they were going on every point of the compass, and were evidently on feeding ground, which I saw no reason to doubt that they frequent.’ Melville afterwards confirmed to me this observation. December 3rd, the Mary Anne and Matilda again returned. The former had gone to the southward, and off Port Jervis had fallen in with two shoals of whales, nine of which were killed, but owing to bad weather, part of five only were got on board. As much, the master computed, as would yield thirty barrels of oil. He said the whales were the least shy of any he had ever seen, ‘not having been cut up’.† The latter had gone to the northward, and had seen no whales but a few fin-backs.
On the 5th of December, both these ships sailed again; and on the 16th or 17th of the month (just before the author sailed for England) they and the Britannia and William and Anne returned to Port Jackson without success, having experienced a continuation of the bad weather and seen very few fish. They all said that their intention was to give the coast one more trial, and if it miscarried to quit it and steer to the northward in search of less tempestuous seas.
The only remark which I have to offer to adventurers on the above subject, is not to suffer discouragement by concluding that bad weather only is to be found on the coast of New South Wales, where the whales have hitherto been seen. Tempests happen sometimes there, as in other seas, but let them feel assured that there are in every month of the year many days in which the whale fishery may be safely carried on. The evidence of the abundance in which spermaceti whales are sometimes seen is incontrovertible. That which speaks to their being not fish of passage is at least respectable and hitherto uncontradicted. The prospect merits attention—may it stimulate to enterprise.
The two discoveries of Port Jervis and Matilda Bay (which are to be found in the foregoing sheets) may yet be wanting in the maps of the coast. My account of their geographic situation, except possibly in the exact longitude of the latter (a point not very material) may be safely depended upon. A knowledge of Oyster Bay, discovered and laid down by the Mercury storeship in the year 1789, would also be desirable. But this I am incapable of furnishing.
Here terminates my subject. Content with the humble province of detailing facts and connecting events by undisturbed narration, I leave to others the task of anticipating glorious, or gloomy, consequences, from the establishment of a colony, which unquestionably demands serious investigation, ere either its prosecution or abandonment be determined.
But doubtless not only those who planned, but those who have been delegated to execute, an enterprise of such magnitude, have deeply revolved, that ‘great national expense does not imply the necessity of national suffering. While revenue is employed with success to some valuable end, the profits of every adventure being more than sufficient to repay its costs, the public should gain, and its resources should continue to
multiply. But an expense whether sustained at home or abroad; whether a waste of the present, or an anticipation of the future, revenue, if it bring no adequate return, is to be reckoned among the causes of national ruin.’*
A LIST OF THE CIVIL AND MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Governor and Commander in Chief, His Excellency
Arthur Phillip, Esq.
Lieutenant-Governor, Robert Ross, Esq.
Judge of the Admiralty Court, Robert Ross, Esq.
Chaplain of the settlement, the Rev. Richard Johnson.
Judge Advocate of the settlement, David Collins, Esq.
Secretary to the governor, David Collins, Esq.
Surveyor-General, Augustus Alt, Esq.
Commissary of stores and provisions, Andrew Miller, Esq.
Assistant Commissary, Mr Zechariah Clarke.
Provost-Martial, who acts as Sheriff of Cumberland County,
Mr Henry Brewer.
Peace Officer, Mr James Smith.
MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS
His Majesty’s ship, Sirius, John Hunter, Esq. Commander.
Lieutenants, Bradley, King, Maxwell.
His Majesty’s armed brig, Supply, Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird
Ball, Commander.
FOUR COMPANIES OF MARINES
Major Robert Ross, Commandant.
CAPTAINS COMMANDING COMPANIES
James Campbell, John Shea, Captain-Lieutenants, James Meredith, Watkin Tench.
FIRST LIEUTENANTS
George Johnson, John Johnson, John Creswell, James Maitland Shairp, Robert Nellow, Thomas Davey, James Furzer, Thomas Timins, John Poulden.
SECOND LIEUTENANTS
Ralph Clarke, John Long, William Dawes, William Feddy.
Adjutant, John Long.
Quarter Master, James Furzer
Aide de camp to the governor, George Johnson.
Officer of engineers and artillery, William Dawes.
HOSPITAL ESTABLISHMENT
Surgeon-General of the settlement, John White, Esq.
First Assistant, Mr Dennis Considen.
Second Assistant, Mr Thomas Arndell.
Third Assistant, Mr William Balmain.
Text Classics
For reading group notes visit textclassics.com.au
The Commandant
Jessica Anderson
Introduced by Carmen Callil
Homesickness
Murray Bail
Introduced by Peter Conrad
Sydney Bridge Upside Down
David Ballantyne
Introduced by Kate De Goldi
A Difficult Young Man
Martin Boyd
Introduced by Sonya Hartnett
The Australian Ugliness
Robin Boyd
Introduced by Christos Tsiolkas
The Even More Complete
Book of Australian Verse
John Clarke
Introduced by John Clarke
Diary of a Bad Year
JM Coetzee
Introduced by Peter Goldsworthy
Wake in Fright
Kenneth Cook
Introduced by Peter Temple
The Dying Trade
Peter Corris
Introduced by Charles Waterstreet
They’re a Weird Mob
Nino Culotta
Introduced by Jacinta Tynan
Careful, He Might Hear You
Sumner Locke Elliott
Introduced by Robyn Nevin
Terra Australis
Matthew Flinders
Introduced by Tim Flannery
My Brilliant Career
Miles Franklin
Introduced by Jennifer Byrne
Cosmo Cosmolino
Helen Garner
Introduced by Ramona Koval
Dark Places
Kate Grenville
Introduced by Louise Adler
The Watch Tower
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Joan London
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Fergus Hume
Introduced by Simon Caterson
The Glass Canoe
David Ireland
Introduced by Nicolas Rothwell
The Jerilderie Letter
Ned Kelly
Introduced by Alex McDermott
Bring Larks and Heroes
Thomas Keneally
Introduced by Geordie Williamson
Strine
Afferbeck Lauder
Introduced by John Clarke
Stiff
Shane Maloney
Introduced by Lindsay Tanner
The Middle Parts of Fortune
Frederic Manning
Introduced by Simon Caterson
The Scarecrow
Ronald Hugh Morrieson
Introduced by Craig Sherborne
The Dig Tree
Sarah Murgatroyd
Introduced by Geoffrey Blainey
The Plains
Gerald Murnane
Introduced by Wayne Macauley
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
Henry Handel Richardson
Introduced by Peter Craven
The Women in Black
Madeleine St John
Introduced by Bruce Beresford
An Iron Rose
Peter Temple
Introduced by Les Carlyon
1788
Watkin Tench
Introduced by Tim Flannery
The Extraordinary Watkin Tench by Tim Flannery
1 Fitzhardinge, L. F. (ed.), Sydney’s First Four Years, By Captain Watkin Tench, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1979.
2 Australia’s other four foundation books are:
Collins, David. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, from its first settlement in January 1788, to August 1801, (1804)
Hunter, John. An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, (1793)
Phillip, Arthur. The Voyage of Governor Philip to Botany Bay With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, (1789)
White, John. Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, with sixty-five plates of nondescript animals, birds, lizards, serpents, curious cones of trees and other natural productions, (1790)
3 Fitzhardinge, L. F. (ed.), Sydney’s First Four Years, By Captain Watkin Tench, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1979.
Book One
2 From the departure to the arrival of the fleet at Tenerife
† John Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 645: ‘Some natural tears they dropp’d…’
3 From the Fleet’s arrival at Tenerife to its departure for Rio de Janeiro in the Brazils
† A large cask which held around 500 litres.
4 The passage from Tenerife to Rio de Janeiro in the Brazils
† A fictional figure of the eighteenth century, famous for his wildly exaggerated stories.
5 From the arrival of the fleet at Rio de Janeiro till its departure for the Cape of Good Hope, with some remarks on the Brazils
† Captain James Cook, 1728-79.
†2 ‘With tricorn hat under arm.’
†3 Companies of civilian soldiers.
6 The passage from the Brazils to the Cape of Good Hope with an account of the transactions of the fleet there
† Batavian: Dutch.
†2 Territory of the Bantu-speaking people of Southern Africa.
†3 The tiger was possibly a leopard. The cassowary must have come from New Guinea.
†4 Table Mountain.
7 The passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay
† Tasmania.
†2 Tench is remembering the opening lines of Joseph Addison’s tragedy Cato: ‘Heavily in clouds brings on the day, / The great, the important day, big with the fate / of Cato and of Rome…’
8 From the fleet’s arrival at Botany Bay to the evacuation of it, and taking possession of Port Jackson. Intervie
ws with the natives, an account of the country about Botany Bay
† ‘“Malbrooke s’en va-t-en guerre”, an old French song, to the same air as “We won’t go home till morning”.’ Sydney’s First Four Years, 97.
10 The reading of the commissions, and taking possession of the settlement in form, with an account of the courts of law, and mode of administering public justice in this country
† Probably Pinchgut in Sydney Harbour.
11 A description of the natives of New South Wales, and our transactions with them
† This is the first recorded use of the word ‘dingo’ in English.
†2 These are shields.
†3 The word ‘kangaroo’ was introduced to the Sydney area by members of the First Fleet. Sydney Aborigines knew the Eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) as patagorang. It seems likely that they assumed that the word ‘kangaroo’ denoted something like ‘large animal’ to the Europeans, and used it in this context, hoping the strangers would understand.